On the top step: Miista in the business spotlight

Abigail Townsend

Laura Villasenin’s journey to successful shoe designer has not been a smooth one. Abigail Townsend reports

Growing up on a farm in Galicia, on the blustery Atlantic coast of northern Spain, she always wanted to study design. Her parents didn’t agree, however, and so Villasenin studied instead to became a nurse.

Post-qualification, she came to London to work but couldn’t shake her creative itch. She applied to Cordwainers College to study shoe design and craft, graduated and began working for a shoe company – but it went bust. It could have been a devastating blow for her.

But "I just thought, 'What next?' I had seen a gap in the market for good-quality shoes made in Europe at an affordable price, so put together a business plan. When something goes wrong you learn the most," she says.

Villasenin secured backing and in 2010 Miista launched. Her shoes are now available in 26 countries; the business, already profitable, turns over more than £1million a year. She attributes Miista’s rapid growth primarily to the shoes themselves:

"If you have a good product, you will be a success." Making shoes is expensive, and Villasenin has little money for marketing. So she has used social media campaigns and the internet to get the brand noticed.

Miista’s blog, for instance, focuses not just on shoes but on the brand’s many and eclectic influences; recent posts have ranged from Pussy Riot to Gloria Steinem.

Villasenin, 34, still lives and works in Hackney, London. Plans for the business continue apace, with a move into bags scheduled next.

She supported herself at college by working nights at the Royal Marsden cancer hospital and it taught her to see the bigger picture.

"If something goes wrong in the business, there are far worse things that can happen."

And her parents? "Very proud," she says.

Factfile

Company: Miista

Established: 2010

Turnove:r £1.2m in 2012-13

Number of staff: Nine, including two regular freelancers

miista.com

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